Heaven is a pineapple lump (or why do we always have to lose the final)
We’re having a potluck lunch for my floor at Passfield tomorrow, everyone’s cooking or bringing bits and pieces. I was going to try and bake stuff until I discovered that we didn’t have an oven, how did I not realise that until now? Anyway I though it’d be nice to bring something Kiwi-ish, and since cooking lamb was off my list of things to do, I toddled off to the Australia/New Zealand/SA/ Canada shop in Covent Garden and bought Tim Tams and Gingernuts. Insanely expensive but I figure this will be my once-a-term treat . . . I also bought myself some pineapple lumps, they really are so very very tasty!!
It’s kinda funny, I never thought of myself as a proper Kiwi until I moved here. Maybe it’s homesickness talking, but I definitely miss Kiwi culture, being surrounded by people who talk rugby, general laid-backness, and people with Noo Zulund accents. There’s a lack of Pacific Islanders here, no one talks Samoan on the buses and many of my fellow Passfielders can not for the life of them understand the Haka . . . which I refuse to do for them anyway (just imagine me doing any haka, does that not create the funniest mental pictures ever?)
It was oddly nice being in the NZ/Aus/SA/CA shop, it’s kinda like stepping into another land. I was surrounded by Kiwis, mostly from the Waikato, discussing who’d won the Air NZ Cup Final. I was the only Wellingtonian, and therefore the only disappointed one it appears. (Waikato played Wellington in the Air NZ Cup Final, the old NPC, and won for those that may have missed this news).
The thing is that I didn’t come here to hang out in a NZ shop, so although it’s lovely to know it’s there, I think I’ll probably experiment with UK peanut butter, cereals, biscuits and lollies instead of going there every week. To prove this I have some brand of UK peanut butter in my cupboard, I haven’t tried it yet but hopefully it’s good!
I think it took me a lot longer than I ever expected to settle in completely. I finally feel vaguely at home here, but it’s taken 4 weeks to get to this point. I’m actually back to being organised again, I think I’ve stopped losing things in my general confusion, and they’ve finally re-bolted my bookshelf to the wall so it won’t fall on me. I know when my essays are due, I’ve chosen my courses, I’ve organised my disability support bits and pieces, I have a bank acount and cashcards, a GP, and 5 new textbooks. I’m still vaguely church hunting but I’ve got a LSE CU cell group with very cool people in it, and the LSE CUers have been incredibly welcoming and fabulous to me. I’ve been on the London Eye with my parents and realised how HUGE London is. I’ve been to numerous very English pubs with new friends and not eaten very much exciting stuff. Life is good, I’m truly lucky to be here and amazed by the people that teach me, and by my classmates.
To sum up, God has been very good to me and I am constantly learning that I can rely on Him for everything. I think the first part of the song “Take My Hand” by Shawn McDonald sums it all up for me right now -
“Take my hand to the promise land
And on You I want to stand
‘Cause I cannot do it on my own
You’re what I need and I need to be
Right by Your side ‘cause I cannot hide
Lord, I know that I need You”
